On its second full day in office the Biden administration is vowing to confront the “serious and growing national security threat” of domestic violent extremism, in the wake of the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, incited by President Donald Trump and his allies.
President Joe Biden has ordered the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to task the FBI and Dept. of Homeland Security with conducting a joint comprehensive threat assessment on domestic violence extremism (DV), White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday afternoon.
“The January 6 assault on the Capitol and the tragic deaths and destruction that occurred underscored what we have long known: the rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat,” Psaki said, promising the administration “will confront this threat with the necessary resources and resolve” by “developing policies and strategies based on facts on objective and rigorous analysis.”
The Biden administration wants “fact based analysis, upon which we can shape policy,” Psaki said.
She also promised the National Security Council will “focus on countering domestic violent extremism,” and said the administration will “focus on addressing evolving threats, radicalization, the role of social media, opportunities to improve information sharing, operational responses, and more.”
In 2009, during the Obama administration a senior analyst for domestic terrorism at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security authored a report that warned of the threat of right wing extremist domestic violence. Outraged Republicans forced then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to scrap the report. In a 2017 op-ed he wrote that white nationalists have become even more emboldened as a result.
Watch Press Secretary Jen Psaki announce the Biden initiative to combat domestic violent extremism: